Is a 50W HPS enough?

Hey,

Is a 50W HPS enough for two plants in a 2x3 area?

dont think so, remember you want ATLEAST 5,000 lumens per square foot.

So it wouldn't work then?

For stealth reasons I could not use my 400W because of how loud the fans were.

Why not try a 250? A guideline is 50w/sq ft of HPS for good growth and yields, 250 will give you 42.66w/sq ft, which is close. I wouldn't recommend a 400 for that small a space, too much heat.
You will still need good ventilation with a 250, you can quieten fans in a number of ways, build a box to enclose it and fill it with packing foam to deaden the vibrations, mount the fan on rubber to do the same, and if that don't work, get a fan speed controller. If you turn it down to 80% it will make a lot less noise as it's not operating at it's limit constantly.
Hope this helps!

Buy some cfl's if you wanna cheapo setup.Just be carefull there toxic.

1kooguy said:

Buy some cfl's if you wanna cheapo setup.Just be carefull there toxic.

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i have the same size grow space, but with one plant. i'm vegging now, but once flowering i will set up a 150watt HPS and 3 42watt CFLs around the sides. i think it'll be a nice little setup. of course i'm not letting the thing get any bigger than 1 to 1.5ft before i flower, so it may depend on how big you let yours get.

Just grab one of the $20 hps's if you're in the US... The 50 is not enough on it's own but could be supplemental to that, and the 150 throws 15k lumens so the two combined is just barely enough for the space you have.

If you wanted to use only the 50w, you'd be looking at covering less than one sq foot. PC case grow maybe at best.

I am thinking of maybe going out and buying some CFL's so I have a few CFL's and a HPS.

How many CFL's would I need?

-Thanks.

6 42w actual (they say 120 or 150w equivalent) cfl's is enough for a 1x3 cab if it's all painted white inside. You can get them at walmart or whatever.
Bigger ones like that are better, and not the flood light type that just have a fake outer glass shell to make them look like floods, those don't work well.

the 50w hps is equal to maybe two of those. So get at least 4 to be safe.

Ok now I see on RIU people have things that they put there CFL'S in, It is a Y shaped plastic thing that is upside down what are those called?

thats not going to work on its own, with that you would only have about 8 watts per sq foot, the minimum you need for decent nugs is 20....minimum so really for that size area a 150 hps is about as low as you can get away with

whulkamania said:

Ok now I see on RIU people have things that they put there CFL'S in, It is a Y shaped plastic thing that is upside down what are those called?

Click to expand...

their called y sockets, you can fit 2 cfls in them.